Vacations – like any type of rest – are restorative and the change of pace helps to reset your thoughts and recharge your creative energies.

Just like sleep, taking time off and allowing yourself a change of pace help to fill your energy tanks and release the energies that are no longer needed.

But if you are self-employed, you might feel nervous about taking time off to get a little R&R, thinking that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

If that’s the case, have a look at some of these strategies and tips you can try to get both! Keep your business running while you run off to the beach … even if it’s only for a long weekend.

1. Plan Ahead

You may or may not be a planner, but if you are feeling reluctant to take time away from work, planning even just a week in advance will give you peace of mind about what needs to get done before you go away and what can wait until you return to your awesome business. This includes not only planning your time, but also saving up the money you desire to go away and keep things running while you’re gone.

How can you plan in advance to give yourself peace of mind while you’re away?

2. Automate Processes

Making consistent money in your business is about working consistently on the money-making tasks in your business. Some of these tasks – like marketing, promotion, advertising and scheduling – can be automated. My coach often says, “Someone or something must always be working on your business, but it doesn’t always have to be you.”

What activities can you automate before you go on vacation to be working for you while you’re getting the rest you need and deserve?

3. Delegate tasks

For the things that MUST get done and can’t be automated, what can you delegate or outsource? Can you hire someone to watch your pet? Can you hire a VA to do your social media promotion? Can you turn over work to a graphic designer or webmaster to work on while you’re away for you to review upon your return?

Who can be taking over some of the tasks in your business and your life so that you can keep your business running while you’re gone?

4. Lighten up

Are you someone who pushes herself too hard? Do you tend to over-schedule, overwork and overestimate what can actually get done in a certain amount of time? If so, it might be helpful to take an objective look at your schedule and list of tasks to see what you can realistically get done in a specific block of time and then give yourself a break about what can be accomplished with the resources you have. This tip is about being a little bit softer and more compassionate with the expectations you put on yourself.

How can you re-asses your workload given the resources you have available?

5. Work on your wealth consciousness

If you feel like you absolutely cannot take time away from work, I invite you to take a look at your abundance mindset. Do you have subconscious beliefs about what will happen if you stop working? Do you have stories or thoughts running in your head that it’s not possible to run a business and go on vacation? The thoughts you think become the plans you craft and the action steps you take.

What are the subconscious thoughts you have about balance between work and play and how do they serve or not serve you?

Are you ready for vacation?

Depending on the work you do, you are making important contributions to the world. You are making it more beautiful, healthier, happier, more stylish, more beautifully photographed, more well read … whatever it is, give yourself the gift of time off so you can come back and keep dong the important work as a more rested, ready-to-go version of yourself.

Hopefully these ideas will help you put the structures and mindset in place to support you!